1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to vehicles and, in particular, to displaying information about the exterior environment around a vehicle. Still more particularly, the present disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for displaying information about the exterior environment around the vehicle using a mobile device.
2. Background
In operating vehicles, the operator of a vehicle typically looks through windows in the vehicle to see the environment around the vehicle. Depending on the design of the vehicle, the field of view provided by the windows in the vehicle may be more limited than desired. The field of view is the extent of the environment that can be seen at any given moment in time.
An aircraft is an example of a vehicle that may have a field of view that is limited. A pilot is currently only able to see a limited field of view from the windows in the flight deck of the aircraft. This field of view is sufficient during flight of the aircraft.
However, when the aircraft is on the ground, performing operations with the limited field of view from the windows in the flight deck of the aircraft may be more difficult than desired. For example, the view of the environment outside of the aircraft may make performing operations such as flight checks more difficult. For example, visual observations of the outside of the aircraft may be more difficult to make from the flight deck. As a result, some of the separation observations may need to be made by the pilot walking around the exterior of the aircraft or exiting the flight deck and looking through windows in the passenger cabin.
In another example, taxiing in the aircraft may be more challenging with the limited field of view from the windows in the flight deck of the aircraft. For example, with the field of view from the flight deck of the aircraft, seeing whether clearance is present for the wing of an aircraft with respect to a building or other structure may be difficult to perform.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a method and apparatus that takes into account at least some of the issues discussed above, as well as other possible issues.